NEWS

CHESS Health, a leading technology provider serving addiction treatment and relapse prevention, announced it has partnered with Staten Island Performing Provider System (SI PPS), an alliance of clinical and social service providers serving Medicaid and uninsured populations of Staten Island residents, and the Staten Island Borough President's Office. The partnership was struck to leverage CHESS Health’s A-CHESS Platform, including the Connections smartphone app, to enhance drug prevention and substance abuse treatment programs in SI PPS’s partner network across the borough.​The A-CHESS Platform including the Connections smartphone app, uses relapse prevention tools and condition-specific content to enable patients and their care team, including peer specialists, to connect 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This facilitates proactive, continuous engagement and faster intervention.

“Our office is determined to leave no stone unturned in our efforts to combat the opioid epidemic on Staten Island,” said BP Oddo. "When my staff presented their research highlighting the effectiveness of the A-CHESS Platform and corresponding smartphone app, it became clear that this tool could be a game-changer for the borough’s treatment community. Of course we turned to one of our most dependable partners, the SI PPS, to jointly fund this pilot effort which we anticpate will save lives.”

“We are delighted to join SI PPS and Borough President Oddo in their efforts to fight substance abuse in the Staten Island area,” said Hans Morefield, chief executive officer at CHESS Health. “One of the biggest obstacles to treatment success is relapse shortly after treatment. A-CHESS gives patients the tools to avoid relapse, right in their pocket.”“We see the A-CHESS Platform as an integral part of our substance abuse treatment strategy,” said Ashley Blauvelt, director of project management at SI PPS. “Preventing relapse is essential to providing high quality care and avoiding preventable hospital admissions and readmissions.”SI PPS is one of 25 systems across New York State that receives funding through a Medicaid redesign grant via the New York State Department of Health for the Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP) program. DSRIP is an initiative with a goal to reduce preventable hospitalizations by 25% by 2020, and one that leverages technological innovation to improve outcomes for populations with chronic conditions like substance abuse disorders.

The Borough President’s Office has been on the front lines in the battle against opioid abuse from introducing evidence-based prevention programs into Staten Island’s schools to increasing access to life-saving Naloxone to an ongoing major data initiative in partnership with Johns Hopkins University and Northwell Health. CHESS Health is eager to contribute its expertise and proven platform to amplify the impact of these comprehensive efforts.A-CHESS will be part of a year-long pilot program jointly funded by SI PPS and the Staten Island Borough President’s Office, to provide a continuum of services to recovery centers, outpatient counseling, inpatient detox, residential treatment and other recovery groups. Per Blauvelt, “We chose CHESS Health in part based on the need to provide data to validate outcomes from the pilot, a requirement to substantiate financial support to PPS partners for the grant.”

​On Friday, June 23rd, Borough President James Oddo joined with members of the Department of Education to host a training session for teachers in iCivics. Through a partnership between the Borough President and the DOE, teachers from Staten Island public schools were trained in how to use this educational tool as part of their curriculum. Teachers will use the program as part of their Social Studies curriculum beginning in 3rd grade and continuing through the high school level. Previously, civics was only taught briefly in high school.

At the training session, teachers received an orientation from iCivics representatives on how to implement the game-based learning program in the classroom. Participants were able to explore the site, create accounts and start their virtual classrooms. The workshop put an emphasis on the train-the-trainer model, encouraging teachers to return to their schools and train other teachers. Teacher guides were also distributed to participants.

“This is a priority of ours,” noted BP Oddo. “We live in an era where we have more access to information than ever before, yet people still don’t understand how our government and country works. We want to reemphasize the teaching of civics, and iCivics is a great tool to do this. It draws students in through games and creates better informed citizens, who will be the true leaders of tomorrow. Focusing on teaching civics in our schools is a great way to get at society’s challenges. The more students learn about civics, the more likely they are to be positive agents of change in the future.”

“iCivics allows us to grow better civic-minded students,” said Christine Zapata of the DOE’s Staten Island Borough Field Support Center. “It allows kids to get deeper into topics they normally wouldn’t have learned about so early in their careers. Why wait until kids are 17 or 18 years old to make them better civic-minded citizens?”

“Students love iCivics,” said Amber Coleman-Mortley, Digital Media Manager for iCivics. “It puts them in the driver’s seat, where they can get firsthand experience in civics. We support the games with a curriculum for teachers to make sure that students understand the concepts fully.”

iCivics is a not-for-profit program founded by former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor in 2009. The program teaches students how government works by having them experience it directly through a series of interactive games. iCivics offers 19 free interactive games that focus on different aspects of civics education. It is used by over 150,000 teachers in all 50 states, reaching over 5 million students every year.

On Wednesday, June 21st, BP Oddo joined with representatives of the Department of Education, as well as Borough Student Advisory Council (BSAC) student representatives, to announce the allocation of $21,189,000 in capital funding for educational purposes in Fiscal Year 18.

The students—who represented CSI High School for International Studies, Gaynor McCown Expeditionary Learning School, New Dorp High School, Susan Wagner High School and Tottenville High School—were invited back to Borough Hall to see firsthand how their voices can make a difference. At the end of April, these same representatives brought their school’s concerns to the BP in hopes that he would listen and take their ideas into consideration when allocating taxpayer money the following year. BP Oddo did just that, and their proposals represent five of the projects put forward in the allocated budget for educational funding.

“If you look at any of the challenges we have as a community on Staten Island, across the city, or across the country, the solution and the way to improve those things is investing in young people, making them the best they can be and giving them the tools they need to succeed,” BP Oddo told the students. “Thus, when we have the opportunity to give out taxpayer money to a certain project, we have put an emphasis on educational problems. I hope you, as students, realize you do in fact have a say in what happens in your community.”

“It means so much to know that there are people listening to us. We want to leave a legacy. Knowing that future students are going to enjoy field lights because of this opportunity you gave us is such an amazing feeling,” said a New Dorp High School student.

This year’s funding represents a portion of the $51,928,000 of taxpayer money that BP Oddo has allocated for education since taking office in 2014.

On Wednesday, June 7th, BP Oddo joined with the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) and Council Member Debi Rose to announce the installation of new closed-circuit television cameras at the Todt Hill Houses. BP Oddo allocated $2.9 million in funding over two years for the security upgrades.

“More than ten years ago, I allocated funding to bring security cameras to the South Beach and Berry Houses, the two NYCHA developments in my old City Council district,” noted BP Oddo. “I did this because cameras make these developments safer. The fact is, whenever I speak to NYCHA residents in developments that have cameras they are happy with the cameras, and when I speak to those in developments without them they indicate a desire for them. Cameras at the Todt Hill Houses will have the same positive effect they have had on other NYCHA facilities.”

“Nothing is more important than the safety of our residents. Security upgrades are crucial to improving safety, and we’re making them across our portfolio with the support of our City and State partners, who have secured vital funding for these projects,” said NYCHA Chair and CEO Shola Olatoye.​The upgrades at the Todt Hill houses are part of a larger plan to install cameras, exterior lighting, and layer-access control, which uses key-fob technology to provide building entry access to residents at 22 public housing developments across the city.

Tech is a burgeoning industry on Staten Island. As part of BP Oddo's outreach in this field, the Borough President's Office has facilitated a partnership between the nonprofit organization Girls Who Code and the DOE's Staten Island Borough Field Support Center to bring free after-school computer science clubs to schools across the Island.

This program will allow 6th-12th grade girls on Staten Island to have increased opportunities to learn coding. Another benefit to the program is that the girls who participate will be mentored by female engineers who can show them what it's like to work in this field. The program will also run field trips to the world's leading tech companies, so girls can see coding in action.

Middle and high schools are eligible to become host sites for the program. To host a club, a sponsor would need computers with an internet connection for each Club member, space to host the Club and a faculty member to lead the club and coordinate with Girls Who Code.